Late in the 2008 presidential election, then-candidate Barack Obama vowed that “we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

While few could appreciate what Obama truly meant, this promised change now permeates the bureaucracy of the federal government, as seen in a report of a web page being created by the Transportation Security Administration specifically for transgendered Americans.

“TSA recognizes the concerns members of the transgender community may have with undergoing the security screening process at our nation’s airports and is committed to conducting screening in a dignified and respectful manner,” the web site states.

But their very first recommendation that the birth date, name, and gender on your reservation match your government-issued ID can be inconsistent with the transgendered lifestyle if the ID reflects their assigned sex — see “sex at birth.”

The web page offers tips on packing a carry-on, that may or may not include prosthetics, and advice on pat-downs.

Interestingly, if subjected to a pat-down, the procedure is “conducted by an officer of the same gender as presented by the individual at the checkpoint.”

The key words being “as presented” — for many government entities, the expression of gender identity can be by verbal statement, appearance, or mannerisms, or other gender-related characteristics.

Which means transgendered Americans can choose between male and female TSA agents — a choice that could be driven by the disposition of the attending agent.

And ensuring that it meets the highest “progressive ” standards, the web page offers directions on how to file discrimination concerns with the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

male presenting as male who is transgender… still not clear what you are saying here
the “choice” is based on how you intend to present yourself
when you step into the scanner. The agent has to choose between male or female (no other choices offered here) so you blame the manufacturer, the management or society in general? The agent only has options as dictated by the bosses.

Yeah, we get it. You really have an issue with a government taking trans people into consideration when creating policies.

Also, “At the tax payer’s expense”? Really? It’s a page on a webpage. You make it out as if they’re printing up millions of pamphlets and handing them out to every passenger. What expense? The extra couple megabytes?

And last I checked trans people are tax payers too so should minority group taxpayers not expect the government to provide services unique to their needs? Should the TSA take down pages that offer advice for people with handicaps? Or how about people with special religious concerns like Sikhs not being able to remove their Dastars? Heaven forbid the government should consider anyone other than white straight able bodied Christian tax payers.

I’m a male-to-female transwoman (the worst kind, apparently,) and have a few good stories about dealing with TSA’s security theatre.

Bottom line, even though transgenders are at least 1 in 3,000 of the population, with the sheer volume of people TSA has to process, they’ve seen it all, and are quite aware of transgender travelers. And quite frankly, TSA is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of travelers and doesn’t have the time to shame transgender travelers on behalf of society’s moral-gender-panicked scolds.